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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 2nd, 2023

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  • In the old Star Wars Expanded Universe, there was mention of a Shawken Device which, if operable, could destroy the universe.

    This has led me to conclude that the universe probably isn’t infinite.

    In an infinite universe, all possible things should be happening at the same time. This would necessarily mean that someone invented a device/mechanism/reaction that could destroy the universe, and successfully activated it, thus ending the universe.

    There are only two possible conclusions that I can draw from this thought experiment, which are not mutually exclusive:

    1. The universe is not infinite, and/or
    2. It is not possible to destroy the universe.

  • Whatever the most recent one at the moment is.

    But seriously, my wife and I watched all of the Marvel movies in release order from Iron Man through Infinity War. I watched a sone of Endgame and turned it off after a bit. Sounds like we made the right choice.

    We also stopped Game of Thrones after season 7 episode 4, which appears to be the ideal place to stop to maintain good memories of the show.


  • If you’re interested in something that doesn’t even exist, and should be more-or-less straightforward:

    Music/podcast app that will accept VST plugins (there are many FOSS ones, as well as non-FOSS ones) so that we can compress/limit the sound range on podcasts while in the car. Or even a built-in compressor/limiter that’s based on FOSS compressors.

    I was listening to a hysterical podcast episode between three people, but one of mics was way louder than the other two. I had to take it into Pro Tools and fix it myself before listening to it.

    There are apps that allow EQ, but none that do actual compression, from what I can tell.





  • Therapy (with an MFT or PhD therapist) and a gym membership can do amazing things for you at 21.

    No single person will have all the answers. You may find a Yoda to help with your career, but they probably won’t have the life answers you’re interested in. That’s what your 20s are about: figuring yourself out and putting yourself together.

    My 20s were about figuring myself out. My 30s were about figuring the system (economy, etc) out. Now I’m in my 40s, I understand the system, and don’t like it.



  • I think there are examples of it working, and examples of it not. Singapore’s system works as intended, but here’s a list of yearly salaries for high-paid heads of state >$500,000 USD (sources from Wikipedia). Draw your own conclusions.

    • Cameroon President: $620,000
    • Denmark Queen: $11,000,000
    • Hong Kong Chief Executive: $568,000
    • Japan Emperor: $3,000,000
    • Jordan King: $848,000
    • Kuwait Emir: $165,000,000
    • Luxembourg Grand Duke: $12,000,000
    • Norway King: $33,000,000
    • Oman Sultan: $7,000,000 (could be a very old number)
    • Qatar Emir: $33,000,000
    • Saudi Arabia King: $9,600,000,000 ($9.6 billion)
    • Singapore President: $1,400,000
    • Singapore Prime Minister: $1,600,000
    • Switzerland President: $507,000
    • Syria President: $576,000
    • Tonga King $2,100,000
    • United Arab Emirates President: $4,600,000,000 ($4.6 billion)